South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul requested Kyiv's cooperation regarding North Korean prisoners of war during a phone call with Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha on Monday, stated Seoul's foreign ministry.
Recent assessments from Ukrainian, U.S., and South Korean sources indicate North Korea's involvement in supporting Russian forces in Ukraine, marking Pyongyang's first significant contribution to a conflict since the 1950s.
Cho reiterated Seoul's commitment to assisting Ukrainians and expressed South Korea's willingness to accept any North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine if they wished to relocate there, the foreign ministry noted in a statement.
According to Kyiv, over 3,000 North Korean soldiers were either killed or wounded in Russia by early January 2025.
This year, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) raised concerns about Pyongyang potentially sending additional troops to Russia to engage with Ukrainian forces, despite previous casualties and captures.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy disclosed that Ukraine had detained two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region, marking the first confirmed instance of such captives being taken since their entry into the conflict last autumn.